Housing, health delivery very critical components that need to be addressed
IT is always difficult to lose all that you worked for. Many people sometimes fail to cope with the stress that is associated with monetary losses. The medical effects are sometimes consequential with depression, neurosis, pschosis arising.
Cases of suicide are reported if proper counselling is not done.
Depressive disorder is a serious mental condition that sees about 4.4 of the global population being affected.
It is now common news that some settlements have to be demolished because people were settled on unsuitable land, usually by land barons who fleece many of their hardearned income.
The National Develpment Strategy 1 outlines the strategies, policies, legal, institutional reforms, projects and programmes that ought to be implemented over a period of five years from 2021 to 2025 in order to achieve an accelerated, inclusive, broad-based and sustainable economic growth as well as socio-economic transformation and development.
About 14 national priorities were selected and among them are economic growth and stability, food and nutrition, governance, human capital development, environmental protection, digital economy, health and well-being, infrastructure and utilities, Image building, youth, sport and culture, housing delivery and devolution.
This is a brilliant strategy that has potential to sail the country to an upper middle income economy by 2030 where Gross National Income per capita will range between $4 466 and $13 846.
NDS1 requires everyone to cooperate and together, our country will be a better one in few years to come.
Housing delivery is one key area that determines our destiny as a country.
Housing that is secure, peaceful and dignified is a fundamental right for every citizen of this country and the delivery of affordable, sustainable, modern and functional housing dovetails with Vision 2030 as espoused by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The government has put a target of 220 000 housing units to be delivered during the strategy period and this can only be a success if land barons are dealt with once and for all.
It is time the government, through the Local Government ministry improves land delivery for both urban and rural housing.
Well planned and environmentally sustainable urban and rural housing settlements are dependent on appropriate and well-managed land delivery systems.
NSD1, therefore, calls on government to acquire at least 10 000 hectares of land in urban setups to develop into stands.
Zimbabwe has a lot of state land which falls under the jurisdiction of the Local Government ministry.
To decimate land barons, the responsible Ministry should entertain applicants who seek to develop identified state land and the process should be expedited to get quicker results.
Land barons take advantage of the slow speed of processing of land applications by the Local Government ministry, therefore, giving advantage to illegal settlers who would then settle anywhere to evade the payment of rentals.
Demolitions cannot occur on dulyallocated land that carries legal occupants.
It is imperative that proper physical planning is undertaken in order to avoid haphazard sprouting of settlements.
Mnangagwa saw it very important to establish a Local government and housing department in the Politburo that should assist in housing delivery.
That was noble and it allows for speedy processing of developmental land if the country is to close the 1,25 million housing deficit gap in few years to come.
We expect all the departments tasked with housing delivery to work hand-in-glove to archieve what is expected within the prescribed timelines so that NSD1 becomes a resounding success.
Health services should be improved as well and work has already started on radiotherapy machines, magnetic resonance imaging scans have already been installed at Parirenyatwa and Mpilo central hospitals.
The country is still battling brain drain because of poor working conditions including remuneration which the government should surely improve on. Affordable land is a requirement for economic development. The peace of mind of owning a house is health for our bodies.
We run with the mantra: Cheap and affordable housing for all by 2030!